Prior art binoculars have had casings made of either metal or hard plastics surrounded by a thin leather cover with this, there was a tendency for local distortion or damage to the lens casing to occur in the event of a jolt or bump to the exterior of the device. For this reason, binoculars have typically employed a relatively thick banding which is wrapped around the entire lens casing and a plastic cover on the outer surface of the main body of the binoculars, including the lens casings and focusing mechanism. The plastic cover is divided into four sections, upper, lower, right half, and left half, and is held in place with tightening screws. While it is easy to remove the banding as the banding is not firmly attached, the assembly can relatively easily be damaged.
In addition, with the utilization of tightening screws to hold in place the four pieces of the plastic cover, it is not only necessary to use many small parts but also the construction itself becomes cumbersome. Moreover, as the screws project from the surface of the device, it becomes necessary to cover them with yet another material. This construction also has the drawback of holding dust in the narrow opening formed where the joining arm is bent to change the focal distance in the right and left optical systems.